Everybody is welcome, this blog is highly political, it represents my views, wishes and dreams. It will contain topics about culture, politics, E.U. issues, social comments and everything else that I find the need to share and pass on, from the country I come from originally (Greece) to the country I found my home (Ireland),Europe and the world.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Now it is the time that Europe needs "European" media!

During this crisis every European is trying to get as much
information about what the future will bring for him, his finances, his job,
household and children. We all read newspapers watch the news and trying to
find information about how does this tragic economic crisis will affect our
lives in the future.

Of course most of us trust the information that we receive.
But how accurate is it? If we think that most of the World’s major media organizations
are owned by 6 major multinational corporations, then one should consider their
agenda. The few that escape them is owned by local governments and small groups
of rich elites that have been dominating our countries for decades. Their
interests lie in preserving the current status quo, the nation state with the
current ruling elites. Each protects and supports the other, with only one
purpose. Stay in power for as long as they can.

With all this in mind, it is no wonder that with this crisis
we saw some unacceptable demeanour from our “national” media; the German (and
unfortunately not just them, most rich European countries behaved similarly)
media calling the Greeks lazy and corrupt, when this is far from the truth. In
response the Greek media stated calling the Germans “Nazis” and started
unearthing every crime that the Nazis committed in Greece.

And the result is? Exactly what they wanted to achieve;
divide the European public opinion. Because some do not like the loss of their
influence over their country and the existence of the EU simply brings
challenges. All they have to do is to raise nationalism among the population
and keep small divided nation states and their interests intact.

Conservatism and protectionism was always popular in
European politics and some think that the European project and the euro have
gone too far. Take the example of Britain. Their “national” media have been
propagating against the EU since the Thatcher era, presenting everything that
comes out of Europe as a threat to the British way of life. Everything that is
wrong in Britain is blamed on its EU membership and not in its special
relationship with USA, the City of London and its affair with the Markets and
the Banks that their interests Britain is seeking to protect above everything
else: even the benefit of its own citizens.

Similarly in Norway and Iceland there are other groups that
lobby against their country’s EU membership. The fishing lobby in both
countries is particularly strong and a serious factor for those two remaining
outside the EU. But of course they do not tell their people that by being “half
way in” the ordinary citizens are the ones who lose out, in democracy. Both
countries are members of EEA (The European Economic Area) and they have to
follow most of EU’s legislation. But the citizens do not have a say in this
legislation because as they are not EU citizens they do not have
representatives in the European Parliament.

Of course the rich Norwegian elite have little to worry
since no one in Norway, an oil rich country, complains.But how about other EU members? In Germany
the political, industrial and economic elite profits and benefits hugely by
this crisis that is destroying their southern “partners!” Of course it is
easier to blame the “lazy” and “corrupt” Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese and
Irish for their bad economies and justify why they are imposing such harsh
austerity on them. Little did the German public know that all those years while
those countries were overspending, they were in fact helping the German
economy.

With higher inflation because of the euro, they were driven
to over spending thus helping German exports. So there is no wonder that the
German media are more than happy to portray the austerity program as
something that is necessary, to teach those incompetent southerners how to run
their economy. But remember that they did something similar in the past and
managed to turn a whole nation into being supporters of the worse crime ever
committed on our continent.

How we could solve all this mess and reinstall unity among
the European population, solidarity but also a fairer view of what is really
going on in our Continent? Well how about pan-European media, like newspapers,
TV channels, radios and magazines? Until now, only the European "blogosphere"
offered an alternative and independent point of view. Yet Europe and the EU are
only now considering exploiting it, during the Cypriot Presidency of the
European Union Council.

Besides, receiving the news with a European perspective, not
only offers a more spherical point of view. It also creates a better sense of
“belonging!” There is no more “us here and the others outside our borders.”
Once you receive regularly the news of other countries with a more unbiased
perspective, then not only you have a better judgement but you also understand
what the people in another EU country are going through, how they deal with the
crisis and what solutions or ideas they are putting forward.

That would be a far cry from what we have so far, having our
media inciting hatred and nationalism, distorting the truth and protecting the
interests of few rich elites. We can not go back to what we had before.
Remember, in all the wars that our elites got us into, it was us who were dying
in the battle fields. Now it is us again who are paying the price for their
economic experiments and power struggles between them. What we need is more
news coming from pan-European media and the exploitation of the European
"blogosphere;" to break the voices of the monopolies, the propaganda and the
blinded nationalism.

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About Me

I am working full time in Ireland's semi-public sector. Recently I completed my Journalism studies (BA Hons) in DBS. Writing about politics and social issues, as well as historic facts is my passion. I want to change the way people think and become more active politically and socially. Do not feel very comfortable with idle people, people with no interests or opinion.

I am contributing to many other websites and on-line magazines, like the OVI Magazine, an English speaking online site from Finland. (http://www.ovimagazine.com/). Also the OneEurope website, a pro-European platform based in London, UK. They are trying to be a hub for information about organized European civil
action online and independent journalism from a European perspective. (http://one-europe.info/). I often debate in the Debating Europe website, an independent NGO about European politics ( http://www.debatingeurope.eu/). And finally, I have also cooperated with Newrop Magazine, a French/Dutch/German platform for European politics and think tank. (http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/).

Recently I started blogging for the euronews' blog, Generation Y. You may read my first article for them here.

If you are into politics, Europe, European history, culture and heritage, European social issues and economics but from a citizen's point of view you may like this blog. What I am trying to do is not impress you with my knowledge of economics. I am not an economist. Rather present you with thoughts, ideas and analyze European politics as any ordinary citizen would do.

I am trying to inspire you to become more active or even understand a bit more about some European, Irish and Greek political realities. Hope you enjoy!!